In a nutshell:

What a relief it was, after dining at the newly opened Dakshin Canteen – finally a great mid range eatery in Delhi NCR that celebrates both vegetarian & non-vegetarian food from different areas of Southern India…… they just filled a big void 

Address & other details:

Instagram – Dakshin Canteen

Facebook – Dakshin Canteen

Google – Dakshin Canteen

Phone for reservations / enquiries: 9220425151

Meal for 2: ₹800 onwards

Cuisine type :  vegetarian & non vegetarian 

Disclaimer: All restaurants / eateries reviewed by YUMMRAJ were visited by YUMMRAJ himself & he has paid for the full Bill & tips also. http://www.yummraj.com does not have even one featured / sponsored reviews. YUMMRAJ believes in going to a restaurant in anonymity, as a normal guest, experience everything & give a honest account of the same to you.

YUMMRAJ rates all the food items & then gives a final overall rating, which is a simple average of the individual item ratings. What the ratings stand for: 5 = Excellent, 4 = Very Good, 3 = Good, 2 = Fair, 1 = Disaster

Short description- in case u r in a hurry 

We have know Ruchira for over 2 decades. Met very few times but have been following each other on social media. When Ruchira posted about Dakshin Canteen, I got curious. Reason – except Sana di ge, there are almost no ‘food first’ restaurants in Delhi NCR with top notch vegetarian & non vegetarian food from the southern states of India. We find Mahabelly good but not as good as sanadige. Carnatic cafe gurgaon is good but they serve only vegetarian food. Sana di ge is great food at high price. So there was a void in the mid segment. 

I messaged Ruchira ‘have you eaten here? How is the food’? She said ‘I am the founder & executive chef’. 

So we decided to drop by as a normal guest without informing Ruchira. 

On 1st January we drove from Gurgaon to have lunch here. The restaurant has a 2 car parking in front, like all shops/ establishments here have. However, we parked a little away & that was easy. 

The restaurant has I guess 6-7 tables with 3-5 seats in each. The interiors are very tastefully done, with immense attention to detail. 

The menu card is short & crisp and has detailed description of the dishes. 

The staff member we interacted with, was very warm & efficient. 

Ruchira walked in when we were midway to the meal & we had some good short chit-chat. It was great to see that she spent a good amount of time interacting with guests at the different tables. 

We were pleasantly shocked after eating the food. It reminded us of some great meals we have had at Madurai, Trivandrum, Mysuru, Chennai & Bangalore. 

Detailed description – in case u hv the time to njoy reading: 

Inji Puli Chicken Wings came first – chicken wings with ginger, tamarind and jaggery coating. 

As soon as it arrived, we experienced a waft of aroma of spices. Intense, robust, rustic sauce on chicken wings made it memorable. The chicken pieces were juicy inside but crisp outside. Unputdownable. Loved the perfect balance of Tart ,salt & a hint of sweet 

Rate it 4.5/5

Kaima Vadai came next. It was Chettinad-style minced mutton vadai that was tawa charred on the outside and yet was super soft & juicy within. 

Absolutely loved the Robust Meaty flavours 

Rate it 4.95/5

Devilled Chicken was Srilankan-style bone-in chicken. We liked the super soft & nice chicken 

The accompaniment (masala) was good but not as good as the others. We had this dish in sequence 3. Maybe the other two overshadowed this but we still liked it a lot. Rate it 3/5

Podi prawns were extraordinary soft (which lay Indian restaurants are unable to achieve) & perfect in taste & flavours. The ‘podi + grated coconut’ cover was just too good. We polished this off till the last speck. Rate it 4.75/5

The menu card read – Podi Prawns, Coconut Chammanthi wrapped Prawns drizzled with Podi Aioli.

After 4 starters we had space for only 1 main. We asked for Mutton Artiraichi Kozhambu. It was Arcot-style slow-cooked mutton with in-house made kuzhambu masala. Perfectly cooked super soft meat. The gravy was cooked slowly with care. It retained the flavours f the spices, the meat & also of coconut. Really good. Rate it 4/5

Elaneer Pudding -Tender coconut pudding topped with peanut crumble was mind blowing good. The simplicity of good tender coconut pudding contrasted with the perfectly sweet & crunchy peanut crumble. What a dish!!! Rate it 4.75/5

We also had a drink named Puli Ananas – it had Tamarind & Pineapple juice in the base.  Red Chili Salt was added o the Rim of the glass. 

Lovely flavours of pineapple. The taste was a bit too sweet for us as it is but when had with the red chilli powder & Salt, it was very enjoyable 

Did not feel the tamarind much in the final flavour, taste or in terms of  tanginess. The pineapple overshadowed. 

Acted as a good palate cleanser

Rate it 4/5

Overall rating averages out to 4.3/5

Look forward to a revisit real soon. 

HIGHLY REGOMMENDED BY YUMMRAJ